Automatic Analysis of Development Status and Its Trends for Iran’s Provinces Using Excel

In this research, Delphi method was implemented in three stages to select 43 development indices based on the consensus of experts, and weighted by analytic hierarchy process method. In order to rank the development of Iran's Provinces, scripting in Excel was undertaken to implement the TOPSIS method. The software implements all the steps of the TOPSIS to calculate the distance from the positive and negative ideal solutions, the relative closeness to the ideal solution, and finally the automatic ranking of the Provinces and it provides diagrams, tables, and a map showing the development stage of the Provinces. By upgrading the TOPSIS method from manual mode to the automatic software-based in Excel, the ranking is done fast and the display of the results has been facilitated through tables, diagrams and report forms. The features of this program are its user-friendliness, repeatability using different weights, very small software size and possibility of determining the factors that may promote or demote a province. In this research, based on the statistical information of the year 2015, the ranking of development status of the provinces was carried out. In the first run and with the obtained weights, the provinces Markazi, Yazd and Guilan ranked first to third, and the provinces Northern Khorasan, Qom and Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari won the last three places. Certainly, by changing the weights and repeating the process, a sensitivity analysis can be made and it can be showed that which province(s) maintain their relative position with changes in the weights.